The actual name "Orphism" was
first used in this sense by the French poet Guillaume
Apollinaire (born Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky) (1880-1918),
after the Greek singer and musician Orpheus, whose music even tamed wild
beasts. Apollinaire used it - perhaps after reading Kandinsky's book "Uber
das Geistige in der Kunst" (Munich, 1912), or speaking with Francis
Picabia and his wife, Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia - to express the harmonious
composition and lyrical aesthetic of the new style.

Simultaneous Windows on the City
(1912) Hamburger Kunsthalle.
By Robert Delaunay.

EVOLUTION OF VISUAL
ART
For details of art movements
and styles, see: History of Art.
For the chronology and dates
of key events in the evolution
of visual arts around the world
see: History of Art Timeline.

Orphist painting was a blend of Fauvism
(colour), Cubism (fragmentary planes) and Futurism
(sense of motion). In some ways it was a very early type of Lyrical
Abstraction. It appealed to the senses, using overlapping planes of
contrasting colours, and colour-combinations based on the colour
theory known as the "Law of Simultaneous Contrast of Colours,"
pioneered by the 19th century French chemist Michel-Eugene Chevreul. Delaunay
himself avoided the name Orphism, preferring the more modern Futurist-sounding
term Simultanism to describe his method of capturing fleeting visual
sensations. Not only did Simultanism make reference to the law of simultaneous
colour contrast upon which it was based, but it was seen as a particularly
apt name for a style of modern art. It
is exemplified by Delaunay's paintings like The Cardiff Team (1912-13;
Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven) and La Ville de Paris (1912; Musee
d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris).

Robert Delaunay

Robert Delaunay initiated Orphic Cubism
during the period 1908-10, when he began producing Cubist-style works
with vivid colours instead of the trendy browns and greys of Braque and
Picasso. His subjects were also quite different - he used dynamic Futurist-style
urban imagery rather than the more conventional Cubist still-life forms.
All this is illustrated by his series of pictures of the Tour d'Eiffel,
such as The Eiffel Tower (1910, Guggenheim Museum NY) and The
Red Tower (1912). Hereafter, he gradually dispensed with recognizable
subject matter, and turned to an early type of lyrical abstraction, relying
exclusively on form and colour to communicate his chosen aesthetic. He
employed rectangular shapes in the "Fenetres" (windows)
series, and circular shapes in the "Disks" - mixed with
an insistent strain of symbolism. The effect
of brilliant light and colour
was enhanced by "simultaneous contrast", the result of careful
juxtapositioning of colours. Delaunay's friendship with Apollinaire led
to close collaboration. Apollinaire produced numerous articles and commentaries
on Delaunay's paintings, in which he promoted Orphism, as the latest trend
of the Ecole de Paris.

In March 1913, Robert and Sonia Delaunay's
Orphist work was shown for the first time at the Salon
des Independants. In addition, Robert's paintings were exhibited
at a one-man show at the prestigious Sturm
Gallery in Berlin (owned by Herwarth
Walden), where it strongly influenced painters like Franz
Marc (1880-1916), Auguste Macke (1887-1914), and Paul
Klee (1879-1940) as well as Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) and Marc
Chagall (1887-1985). Delaunay and his wife were also represented at the
Herbst Salon (organized by Der Sturm), along with abstract
works by Picabia, Metzinger, Gleizes, Leger and several Futurist painters.
The new idiom was also noticed by The New York Times, which ran
an article in October 1913 entitled "Orphism: The Latest Painting
Cult", in which it paid particular attention to the significant roles
played by Delaunay and Kupka.

After 1913, only the Delaunays (and Kupka)
continued to paint in the Orphist style, along with one or two pupils
like the Americans Patrick Henry Bruce (1881-1936) and Arthur Burdett
Frost. Most of the other artists associated with Orphism moved on to explore
other methods of painting.

Art and Music

In line with the musical connotation suggested by Orpheus, several artists
associated with Orphism used musical terms in the titles of their pictures,
such as Kupka's Amorpha: Fugue in Two Colours (1912, National Gallery
of Art, Prague) or Picabia's Dance at the Source (1912, New York,
MOMA). Delaunay himself also emphasized a number of connections between
colour and music.

Similar Groups and Styles

Orphism overlapped to a degree with the
Section d'Or (Golden Section), a
loose association of French Cubist painters including Delaunay, Picabia,
Metzinger, Leger, Duchamp-Villon, Gleizes, Juan Gris, and Jacques Villon.
The group held only one exhibition, at the Galerie la Boetie, Paris,
in October 1912, and it was during his lecture at this exhibition that
Apollinaire first used the name Orphism. A second similar group, comprising
many of the same members, was called the Puteaux Group, which held
informal meetings in the studios of Raymond
Duchamp-Villon and Jacques Villon.

The emergence of Orphism reflected the
wider vision of Cubism held by those in the Puteaux group including Albert
Gleizes and his co-author Jean
Metzinger who wrote the first treatise on Cubism entitled Du Cubisme
(1912). Orphic Cubism was also imitated by other Parisian artists, including
two Paris-based American painters Morgan Russell (1886-1953) and Stanton
Macdonald-Wright (1890-1973) who founded a very similar style known as
Synchromism, in 1912.